Genesis 1

Creation

¹ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The phrase In the beginning is a small phrase that says so much. How do we regard the concept of time? In the modern science of physics, time is a physical property, that had a beginning and will possibly have an end. Here, in the very first line of Scripture, God tells us that at the beginning of time itself He was already there creating things. And if we can wrap our head around it, God created time itself. He created the thing we call time - whatever it is.

"The heavens and the earth" is a merism. An English merism is high and low. When we say, "We search high and low", we don't mean that we only search the high and the low but nothing else. No, we mean that we search the high, the low, and everything in-between. In other words, we mean we search everywhere. In the same way, the Hebrew merism the heavens and the earth means the heavens (i.e. everything up there and out there), and the earth (i.e. everything down here), and everything in-between. In other words, it means God created everything - the entire universe and everything that's in it.

Another Hebrew merism is evening and morning in v.5 which means one complete day. Yet another Hebrew merism is in Psalm 139:2 "You know when I sit down and when I rise up" means you know everything about me.

² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

In only the second verse of the Bible, we are introduced to one of the persons of the Trinity - the Spirit of God. Anti-trinitarians seek to dismiss this as nothing more than a figure of speech e.g. it means God's consciousness or something to that effect, but if we understand this term within the context of the entire Bible, then we realise there are distinctions between the persons of the Godhead. For now the Trinity is merely hinted at here.

³ And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

⁴ And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

The theme of separation is introduced there. To separate alludes to the sense of settng apart, to be sanctified.

⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The term "there was evening and there was morning" is a Hebrew merism that means "one whole day". Even if one believes that the creation account here is symbolic or mythical or anything but literal, there is no denying that the Moses meant "one whole day", and his Hebrew readers would also have understood it as "one whole day". In fact, with this merism, he couldn't be clearer that "one whole day" is what he had in mind. Neither can it be argued, as some fallaciously do, that he was unable to express long ages. That's modern snobbery. Moses, wrote the first five books of the Bible which give an account of history that spans thousands of years, and even in translation we understand clearly what he is saying even today. Yet, some argue that he was not intelligent enough to write "thousands times thousands of years" or words to that effect. That's pure snobbery. One can disbelieve the veracity of Moses's claims, but one can't deny his intended meaning whatever its veracity. By the time we get to v.31, it should be obvious to any honest reader, that Moses took great pains to tell us that God created the universe, and everything that's in it, including life itself - in six literal days. We Christians who believe that Moses wrote the Torah under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit would be inconsistent with our own belief if we deny six-day creation.

⁶ And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."

⁷ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.

⁸ And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹ And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.

¹⁰ God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so.

¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

¹³ And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴ And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,

¹⁵ and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so.

¹⁶ And God made the two great lights- the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night- and the stars.

The two great lights are obviously the sun and the moon. So then, we may ask, "What was the light in v.3?". The obvious answer is something other than the sun and the moon. And if you find that answer flippant then I point you to Revelation 22:5 which states that in the new heaven and new earth, God Himself will be our light. God uses such parallelisms in Scripture, but it takes more than a cursory glance of the Bible to spot them.

¹⁷ And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,

¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

¹⁹ And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰ And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."

²¹ So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²² And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

²³ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds- livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so.

²⁵ And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

²⁹ And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

³⁰ And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.

³¹ And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

If anyone is unconvinced that God really means that He took 6 days for creation here, then please take a look at Exodus 20:11 and Exodus 31:17 where He connects keeping the Sabbath holy with... yep... 6 days creation!